Tunic for Sophie May.

I made this tunic out of a couple of remnants of soft, spotty, blue cotton I picked up for three dollars at Spotlight.  If the remnant had been bigger, I probably would have been selfish and made a blouse for myself out of this, it's soooooo lovely.  Boo for me, but lucky for Sophie.

 

Stuck in a grimy washing basket at the local Salvos, smothered by all those horrible Knitwit patterns for blockish sloppy-joes and Hammer-time slacks, I found this little treasure for fifty cents.   Wooo!

Because of the limited amount of fabric, I had to make it a little shorter, but it will be perfect with tights...

...and of course, we had to sew on a big old bow!

I love little dresses that only take a couple of hours to make!  I've already cut fabric for two more out of off-cuts from my fabric stash - so, yep, the old Janome will be firing up this week - watch out! 

January is birthday month...

 

...and today,  it's Cameron's turn!  He is 7!!

No party, this year, unfortunately.  Cam is still slightly mimsy following his operation, and we knew this would be the case, so it was a very quiet affair.  Besides which, this time of year is a rotten one for a kid to have his birthday.  It's right at the end of the school break, so it's been ages since he saw his classmates (and being the dreamer he is, he doesn't even remember who was in his class last year).  And it's H O T.  The mercury has been teetering between 40 and 43 degrees celsius for the past week, and entertaining a houseful of kids in that sort of heat is asking for big, sweaty, miserable trouble.  We  get around these problems by having his party two months early.

Well, that's what we did last year, anyway.  I had the added dilemma of Sophie being due two weeks prior to Cameron's sixth birthday, and there was NO WAY I was going to be able to deal with party preparations, the scorching January heat AND a newborn.  I am not one of those Super-mums.  So, we held it in November instead.  As it was his last birthday as an only child, we decide we would make it all about Cameron.

So, Cameron on the invitations...

...the reply slips...

...the loot bags...

 

...and the party game (although we didn't get round to playing this.  Bummer!)

Nothing so grand and egocentric this year, I'm afraid.  And waaaaay too hot to ride the bike he got as a present, which was disappointing.  Although his Dad did make him a pretty wacky and delicious cake...

 

...and cake fixes everything.

Happy birthday, gorgeous boy!  I love you! You made my dreams come true. xxxx

Cooking a swirly cake - by Cameron.

Hi, this is Cameron!  Today we made a cake.  It was a vanilla cake with pink swirly cakes inside.

First we made a cake mix, and put a small bit in the bottom of a loaf pan.  Then we put mini swiss rolls along the centre of the pan and then put the rest of the cake mix on top and cooked it.  We made some light pink icing to put on top.  I shook sprinkles on it, too.

When we cut the cake, there were pink swirly circles inside.

My Nanna had some.  It was delicious!

Sophie May is 1 today!

The cake says so! 

But, gosh, how did that happen?  It seems like only yesterday she was a compliant little bundle, sleeping lots and occasionally blubbing if I was late with a feed.  Now, she's a small, unstoppable force of nature (albeit, one of the cutest kind!) that has a holler that can drown out the sound of lawnmowers and whose favourite thing is to sneak up on our poor, old, clueless dog and grab tufts of fur from her rump.  Ohhhh, Sophie May!   I love you, squiggle!

I also have to say a BIG thank you to Cameron, who had his tonsils out just yesterday, for helping me with the cakes this afternoon.  He plonked those stars on perfectly.   You are a trooper *kiss* !

The absolute best things I ever made.

 

I love this child to a million bits, even if she does have her entire family on the hop.  She knows how to get what she wants from everybody.  So, be warned, world. Plus, she knows no fear.  I imagine she will turn out to be a lion-tamer or a star-ship captain, or something equally fearless.  

While this adorable, funny, chatty, dreamy, loopy creature....

....will be taking me to the Academy Awards.  Sweet.

Paper dolls (and an anxious wait).

We made paper dolls this week, which went a very small way in distracting Cameron from thinking about the tonsillectomy he is scheduled to have on Thursday.  He is, in his words, "a little bit scared". 

I drew some basic body, arm and leg shapes on some thin card, and then Cameron got his scribblers out and started colouring.

Then I outlined them with thick marker (just because they looked better that way!)

After we cut out our shapes, we glued some heads on the body bits.  These bunny and panda heads were snipped from Symphony brand tissue boxes.   (Note:  I have been snipping these heads from tissue boxes for five years so I have literally hundreds of them.  It seems a tad OCD, but they are too cute to throw away!)  You could check out magazines for a suitable head for your dolly.

Then the arms and legs were connected with brads.  Oooo, and they needed party hats, too.

Happy days!

You'll notice, however,  despite the festivities, the puppeteer still looks a bit antsy.  Poor, little man.  Don't fret, this time next week, it will all be over.

Yippeeeeeeee!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Happy New Year!

Happy 2012!  I hope you've had an excellent start to the new year!

I've been a bit slack with the making, lately.  We spent Christmas on the Gold Coast, riding rollercoasters and scaring ourselves witless on humongous water slides.  We arrived home the day before New Year's Eve, and I've only just managed to get on top of the unpacking and the laundry.  Sophie May has been on Queensland time for the past week and waking up at 4.30am every morning.  What fun!

We had a great time, but I must say I am happy to be back home, pottering about in my work-room and traipsing through my garden, pruning trees and picking tomatoes.  You appreciate home so much more when you're away from it, especially when you've spent eight days living in a space measuring 20 by 8 feet with your darling family, which includes an 11 month old who was sick with a cold and only slept three hours a night.

I'll be back on track soon.